Ostranauts - spaceship management sim set in NEO Scavenger universe - now available on Early Access

[Joggerino]

Pretty fun game, but it doesn't last long. After you get a ship running there's nothing left to do.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Well its still in EA (and likely will remain there for a year or two), I guess a lot more stuff will be added eventually.

 

[Mortmal]

Pretty fun game, but it doesn't last long. After you get a ship running there's nothing left to do.

Was about to ask if its worth buying now, got my answer thanks.

 

[Joggerino]

Pretty fun game, but it doesn't last long. After you get a ship running there's nothing left to do.

Was about to ask if its worth buying now, got my answer thanks.

Yeah, maybe after one year.

 

[Infinitron]

In this video, Dan tries to list off all the most important changes in the recent updates in under 2 minutes!

 

[Infinitron]

Hey folks! Ian and Bret from https://indiefunction.com/ invited me on to talk shop about game development. We had a really nice time, I hope you enjoy the conversation.

 

[Harthwain]

I watched up some videos. The game is weird, but interesting. Truly an incline.

The heavy focus on "Newtonian physics" and space necessities reminds me a lot of the old hard sci-fi authors. While right now there is just salvaging stuff, this has the potential to become a huge stepping stone for other stuff as well in the distant future: asteroid minning, interplanetary trading (either as an independent merchant or as a contracted hauler), piracy (the police seems to be in the game already)...

What I find curious is how scavenging the derelicts could easily turn into Alien or result in experiencing some other paranormal activity in the vein of Star Trek. This is what can shake up the "let's look for parts" routine, especially considering they can add that on top of the existing core gameplay without having to invest in a whole lot of different systems (like economy when it comes to trading). It's a shame the game still has about two years of development ahead of it (if not more!).

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Yes, I am pretty sure that the Alien style advantures are eventually planed for the derelict scavenging and I would even say that this is going to be a part of the game with biggest potential. Unfortunately the development is progressing rather slowly, so I dont think this will be implemented in 2021.

 

[Perkel]

Just tried it.

10/10 concept and gameplay.

Waiting for more.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1022980/view/2963918716881172087

Patch 0.6.9.0 "Mo' K-Leg, Mo' Problems" Update Is Live!
Hey Folks!

Ostranauts v0.6.9.0 is now available on Steam: the "Mo' K-Leg, Mo' Problems" Update, and it's another fairly big one.

It includes a new OKLG station, several new ships, more NPCs (including some flying ships), social system rebalance and UI improvements. Plus, police can board you now, so watch what you're doing

Spoiler

For best results, you are encouraged to start a new character.

Old saves
might
still work, but there's a decent chance they'll cause bugs. And will definitely miss new content.

It's a pretty significant patch, so I've broken down the change list into sections.

• Added police shakedown conversation.
  
• Added conversation options to ask NPCs that are close to player about their homeworlds and families.
  
• Added more NPCs to OKLG.
  
• Changed social combat UI to show stat bars instead of words for psychological status.
  
• Changed inventory status UI to use new social status UI.
  
• Changed social combat to reveal target's social stats only when they change.
  
• Changed social moves to be more balanced, and cause fewer mood swings.
  
• Changed each social move to have more concise status effects.
  
• Changed OKLG bartender and fixer to stay put and act like their roles.
  
• Changed dead NPCs to drop their items now
  
• Added ability to order crew to follow you, or return to your ship
  
• Improved ability to order non-crew off-ship (more reliable)
  
• Added ability to daydream about ex-lover.
  
• Changed intimacy status names to be clearer.
  
• Changed captain to behave during untime the way player sets them to in roster, unlike NPCs which all take time off.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused AIs to use uninstalled toilets, sometimes getting stuck in walls.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed unconscious and dead AIs to open and close doors.
  
• Fixed a bug that sometimes allowed AIs to open airlocks without permission.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause AI to command player to follow them.
  
• Added code to make the AI walk away from toilets when done using them.
  
• Changed player to start well-fed.
  
• Changed thirst to appear at 4 hours, with dehydration symptoms at 24 hours.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused all NPCs on a station/ship to spawn in the same place, regardless of their spawn points.
  
• Changed SeekAchievement move to be about remembering near-death instead of burpees, to look less weird in social context.
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed player to order NPC of their own ship.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused NPC to treat player's ship as their own.
  
• Added code to make followers follow player when they use transit.

• Added NPC scavenger ships that fly around the boneyard.
  
• Changed police ships so they can board you.
  
• Added code to respawn new scav ships if too few left.
  
• Scavenger and police ships can contain player friends and enemies.
  
• Changed OKLG patrol to spawn 1 ship at a time instead of 2.
  
• Added chance of music when police ships spawn.
  
• Added code to reject docking permission if ship has no docking ports.
  
• Added ability to toggle ship names, reg IDs, and none in nav station.
  
• Fixed a bug that causes ship orientation to not face stations when undocking.
  
• Fixed a null bug when ship docking with a nulled ship.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships to flicker when docked.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships to spawn inside planets.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships to spawn with initial vectors through planets.
  
• Changed collisions to be zero damage if with an AI ship while player docked.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused player collisions with derelicts to get stuck together.
  
• Changed ship names to favor procedural names more, and one-off names less.
  
• Removed debug shift docking feature from docking UI.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused stations to move when ships hit them.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships to get stuck inside station after they collided with one.

• Changed OKLG station to be bigger, more spread out, and have more people.
  
• Added several new ship types.
  
• Added new bug indicator at top left, and user can click it for details.
  
• Changed conduits appearance and made them destructable.
  
• Added black EVA suit and helmet to game.
  
• Changed doors to close automatically when crew AI opens them without player intervention.
  
• Changed doors to remain open if player manually opens door.
  
• Changed doors to resume auto-closing if player manually closes door.
  
• Added code to block placement of objects beyond ship docking airlocks.
  
• Added a button to the quit menu that opens the folder for the PDF manuals.
  
• Changed bar to be installable/uninstallable, and in smaller pieces.
  
• Added tracking alarm when police are targeting and tracking player ship.
  
• Added encounter for first visit to OKLG Mescaform.
  
• Changed OKLG scrap kiosk to always sell at least one of each tool type.
  
• Changed item values and some weights to better reflect their rarity and usefulness.
  
• Changed fixer restocking and buy list to be more random.

• Added infinite storage space for OKLG fixer.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused supply kiosk to buy all items at marked-up price if inside a crate.
  
• Added code to tell player when interaction takes items from them, and what items were taken.
  
• Added code to track which ships COs think they own.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented first derelict docking encounter to not fire.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused footprints to remain for NPCs after they are removed from scene.
  
• Fixed AI ship continues flying while player on it and no AI on nav.
  
• Removed old low battery tutorial.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused PDA install commands to only install things one click at a time.
  
• Fixed bug that prevented installing a damaged nav station.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused save file to have crew portrait if crew selected when saved.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused audio to behave like there's no helmet when loading a save after exiting a game.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused a null exception if nav station target was destroyed.
  
• Removed log spam for angle out of range error.
  
• Added code to center camera after being teleported to new ship.
  
• Fixed quiet techno sound in chargen area.
  
• Changed door and alarm audio to have smaller audio radii.
  
• Fixed a bug that let user use shipe editor eyedropper in normal game.
  
• Added code to make the UI close if AI interrupts player while using UI.
  
• Fixed a bug that would crash game if loot tables didn't load due to missing ship origins list.
  
• Changed game to load ships with error handling, to help modders.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused ships' docking info to be lost if saved while not on-screen.
  
• Changed debug fast travel button to ignore ships and stations with no available docking rings.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused social combat UI to appear and disappear if NPC talked to player while player used another UI.
  
• Changed interaction take items to drop any it cannot hold.
  
• Added parameter to interactions to only trigger on targets onboard claimed ships.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused tooltip to have unhandled null exception.
  
• Fixed a bug that would attempt to stack null items when loading slotted items for a CO.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused nested crew equipment to be lost if that crew was teleported to a template ship.
  
• Fixed a bug in save games that caused save to fail if CO had an interaction with null target.

This one definitely put up a fight, and I wouldn't be surprised if we still have some kinks to iron out.

However, there should also hopefully be a lot of fun stuff in here for you to discover. New ships, new K-Leg station, some new items and old equipment with new behaviors. New item prices and rarities.

Plus, we have ships flying around now! There are scavengers picking over the boneyard, police can board you, and you may even encounter NPCs your character knows.

Crew and AI had a lot of work done, too. More orders you can give, more conversation options, a more intuitive social UI for seeing how you and your target feel. All social moves have been rebalanced to hopefully result in fewer death spirals of despair, plus each move should have clearer effects now.

Plus, doors! They auto-close now so you lose less precious air when passing through

And there's still a lot we'd like to add. Not only to the rest of the game, but to refine these new systems. I expect we'll do a few patches in the near future to tune and flesh-out this update, plus fix any issues we find. (
Reminder: Best to start a new save/character!
)

And as always, we love hearing what you think! Tell us how your run goes. What works for you? What is or isn't fun? What do you want to see next?

Thanks for reading, and fly safe!

Best,
Daniel Fedor
Founder, Blue Bottle Games, LLC

 

[Perkel]

I got stopped by police and i had to pine fine for damaged ship. Also watching stream they plan to make game way more fun.


For example right now the best way to get around is just to take some derrelict fit it with good parts and fly around. But "very soon" it will be considered stealing ship. Same with expensive parts like reactors, thrusters etc. that stuff is something you shouldn't have so you will have to sell it to black market and you can get penalized.

 

[Perkel]

I just spend 6 hours on finishing my boat from parts. Flying to OKG at 1KM/s. Since i was waaay away from OKG i decided to do something else meanwhile.

I go back to nav station in a minute.

Some fucking space jackass comes right at my course he starts to retrograde but it is too late he just hits me and my whole ship goes bust... Fucking helll.

 

[Joggerino]

Yeah.. I remember the fucking police slamming into my ship and killing me.

 

[Perkel]

Yeah.. I remember the fucking police slamming into my ship and killing me.

Well that happened to me right now. I was trying to dock to OKG i was in docking mode and i am like 150m away from station. Suddenly my course gets fucked and police comes in. Fuckers.

The worst part is that after they decoupled force from decoupling sent me into planet and destroyed my ship....




Either way it is great concept of a game. It needs further work to expand it because from what i read beside doing some scavenging and switching ships there isn't anything in game yet like other stations, other factions etc.

 

[Perkel]

I decided to switch to StarSector instead. Turns out that today my luck is just terrible. I decided to scavenge derelict orbital station and it was defended by 3 small drone ships.

I had Apogee and Shrike so i thought it will be ease to deal with. Nope. Those 3 went first after Shrike and decimated it and then all 3 of them stayed completely outside my Apoogee hurt area costantly barraging it.

 

[Joggerino]

Either way it is great concept of a game. It needs further work to expand it because from what i read beside doing some scavenging and switching ships there isn't anything in game yet like other stations, other factions etc.

The problem is it would probably take them several years to expand on the game and finish it.

 

[Harthwain]

The problem is it would probably take them several years to expand on the game and finish it.

The current roadmap...

Spoiler

...posted 7 months ago is supposed to cover ~2 years of early access, so at minimum this means 17 more months (although it will probably take more time, depending on how efficient and disciplined the developers are in terms of avoiding feature creep) of just working on the features mentioned in the roadmap.

 

[Infinitron]

Cops! Auto closing doors! Statbars! This patch has it all and more!
This time around Joshu takes the wheel whilst Dan and Corey chat about the massive list of new features! Naiba our newest member of the dev team is present but unfortunately their mic isn't working!

Try out the new patch for yourself on steam: https://cutt.ly/ycd

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1022980/view/2961668186674145173

 

[gerey]

So, let me get this straight - a big chunk of the gameplay is about building, maintaining and piloting your own ship, and said ship is where the player will spend most of their time, the game is even being marketed as the Not-Expanse, yet he doesn't view space combat as a necessity?

Just how out of touch is this soy-slurping homosexual?

If you lack the skill to implement proper space combat why not just copy FTL? The games are already somewhat similar, what with the topdown view of the ship interior, that aping the combat from that game ought to be relatively easy.

Same goes for personal combat. He could get away with the simplistic way it was implemented in Neo-Scavenger since combat was really not the focus of the game, but here you already have all the elements to turn it into a proper turn-based affair, yet he's unwilling to commit?

Is the game supposed just to be a homosex simulator in space where you collect trash and try to bugger your crew?

 

[Perkel]

Is the game supposed just to be a homosex simulator in space where you collect trash and try to bugger your crew?

yes.

Though there will be few more "jobs" as a start lik police etc.

Either way game uses newtonian model so any combat in space is basically impossible.

 

[agris]

Either way game uses newtonian model so any combat in space is basically impossible.

Why is that? I'm not aware of any sci-fi setting that involves combat at anything near relativistic speeds.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Either way game uses newtonian model so any combat in space is basically impossible

DraQ

 

[Perkel]

Either way game uses newtonian model so any combat in space is basically impossible

DraQ

yess people will be totally up for learning orbital mechanics to shoot someone. There are only few people like that here.

 

[Harthwain]

Is the game supposed just to be a homosex simulator in space where you collect trash and try to bugger your crew?

yes.

Though there will be few more "jobs" as a start lik police etc.

Either way game uses newtonian model so any combat in space is basically impossible.

Straight from the mouth of a developer:

There will likely be combat, and I think it makes sense to expect everything from fistfights between angry crew, up to boarding actions and ship-to-ship combat.

What this looks like, on the other hand, is yet to be determined.

I'd like to take what worked from NEO Scavenger battles, and adapt them into Ostranauts's timescale and 2D playing field. Plus the information scarcity of detecting your target's signature over a million km away is quite different from squaring off across a field or forest hex.

But yes, combat is likely to be a thing. Pirates might also exist. And as for aliens, this is still the NEO Scavenger universe, so stranger things have happened

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1022980/discussions/1/1678064284167725294/

Note: this could be outdated (the post is from 30 Apr, 2019).

This one is from 16 Apr, 2021:

Interesting suggestions! I can definitely see us experimenting with ship-to-ship encounters as we get more systems to work with in the game.

I think a lot of attention will go into the prelude to exchanging fire, such as detection, identification, and countermeasures (both electronic and physical). But once firing solutions are in and someone pulls the trigger, there's a wide range of trouble that can happen

Might be a while longer before we have all the pieces we need to test this out, but it's on my list.

Thanks for the feedback!

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1022980/discussions/1/3106896589759417088/

However, it is likely that combat will have to wait a fair bit (it's not listed on the "player-driven roadmap").